Dr. Amy Brock Hon will teach “MOCS Explore Chattanooga” for first-year students. Photo by Angela Foster.
In Dr. Amy Brock-Hon’s first-year geology classes, the city of Chattanooga will serve as the laboratory.
The class, named “MOCS Explore Chattanooga,” combines two geology classes and a lab and is a part of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s “A Moc’s First Year” program—which was designed to help first-year students build community.
“I have always wanted to try to find a way to engage students early on,” said Brock-Hon, the Robert Lake Wilson Professor of Geology at UTC. “If that interest is piqued early, it could change their path that they never even knew they had.”
Brock-Hon said she understands that most high school science courses don’t include geology. This course aims to introduce students to a potential career in geology or offer a fun and engaging general education class to learn about the city’s geological features.
“What I want is for students to get off campus and see this cool place that we call home,” she said. “Even if it’s a home they’ve lived in since they were born or if they just moved here to come to the University and want to experience what’s so great about Chattanooga.”
Chattanooga, she said, is the perfect place to learn about geology.
“We are a really cool place in terms of geology,” she said. “We sit between these two provinces—one called the valley and one called the Cumberland Plateau. It provides this very unique view of how we got to where we are today in terms of our landscape.
“We are going to learn about those things as we progress, but we’re also going to see it in action. We’ll collect fossils. We’re going to see where they used to mine for coal. We’re going to make those historical connections.”
While in the class, students will take field trips to places such as Signal Mountain to learn firsthand about local water quality issues and acid mine drainage. They will also visit the TVA pump storage facility at Raccoon Mountain to explore the river system and understand how topography and rock types support energy generation.
Brock-Hon ran a pilot class during the spring semester, which consisted of two class sessions and two full-day field trips. During these sessions, she taught her students about the geologic history of Chattanooga, which they could apply during their trips.
“In the class,” Brock-Hon said, “we looked at everything from the minerals that cause acid mine drainage in Chattanooga, to the rocks that form caves, to the coal that fuels the air conditioning in our homes, to the landscape of Chattanooga and the river at shapes it, to where we sit and relate to other bodies in the universe.”
Mathematics senior Savanna Adams listed all the places she got to see while taking the pilot class: Lula Lake Land Trust, Durham Mines, Sunset Rock, Raccoon Mountain, Point Park, Signal Point, Boulders on Old Wauhatchie Pike and Ruby Falls.
“It’s probably so nerdy, but one of my favorite places we went was to the TVA pump storage plant,” Adams said. “This is where during low energy cost times, water is pumped from the river into a man-made lake. During high-cost times, it can be carried by gravity into turbines to generate electricity to supplement the power supply.”
While taking the class, Adams said she learned many things about Chattanooga that she hadn’t previously known.
“I had no clue what rocks or fossils were even found here before taking this class,” she said. “Now when I am out on hikes, I am able to differentiate and explain what I’m seeing and am surrounded by and the significance of it.
“Not all the places had such heavy histories, though; we learned how Chattanooga uses a lot of the geology to make recreational areas for people to climb, hike, bike and just enjoy.”
Brock-Hon said that learning about geology is only part of the course. Making connections with faculty, campus and with each other is another important component.
“There may be this kind of barrier that exists where students think I’m just a professor and they may not feel comfortable coming in,” she said. “This is the first time they’ve had to interact with professors. I want them to see that I’m also a human being and it’s OK to develop a relationship and have a conversation about what interests them and ask, ‘Hey, can I get help with this?’”
During the spring 2024 semester, Dr. Amy Brock-Hon took her “Earth Surface Processes” class to Sparta, Tennessee. Photo courtesy of Dr. Amy Brock-Hon.
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